Dare I say it...Another 72 K5 build! The Bubba build - getting back into it

[Greg72]

You lined up the body line well, but it obvious from the photo that the rear quarter panel is full of bondo. Look at how crisp the body line is on the door vs. How soft the qtr panel looks by comparison.

Be careful not to base your critical alignment (door to qtr panel) on a faulty panel. It's a "might as well" moment, but I'd recommend getting the qtr down to bare metal so that you REALLY know where that body line is. My guess is that the current one is completely built from body filler.

 

[Z71paramedic]

It sounds like the body has sagged (like mine has) and will be tough to fix.

That's what I'm fearing right now...

Be careful not to base your critical alignment (door to qtr panel) on a faulty panel. It's a "might as well" moment, but I'd recommend getting the qtr down to bare metal so that you REALLY know where that body line is. My guess is that the current one is completely built from body filler.

Yeah I'm working up to getting the stones to go ahead and start the quest for bare metal. I have been holding off until this point for the past week or two because it's been REALLY humid lately and I want to be able to spend enough time to get all the way into it, figure out what's going on with the panel, and then be able to cover it back up with some cheap paint or primer for the time being. The Pacific has a way of owning things out here if you know what I mean. Everyone's appliances rust out here because there's no paint on the insides/underneath. Our fridge looks like my rocker boxes

I still need to cut the driver's side door down to a blazer door to at least see if I'm close over there. We'll see if I can make any headway this weekend...

 

[Greg72]

I figured the humidity was the underlying reason, but wanted to confirm.

Once you get some drier weather, you probably want to get a few cans of Ryoken Green (Zinc Chromate) so that once you get to bare metal you can immediately cover it back up with a dust coat. Odds are good that the damage on the lower quarterpanel is bad and you won't be trying to save that metal anyway....but it will be important to see how high up the panel you need to search before you find "good" metal again.

Be brave..... this can be a scary and intimidating time for the build.

 

[vtblazer]

I still need to cut the driver's side door down to a blazer door to at least see if I'm close over there.

I wouldn't cut the door yet, leave it alone and at least it'll be one measurement you can trust, cut it and you'll be guessing at the wing window angle too.

Take a breath and start over, pull the door off again and take measurements of the tub door opening.

Get this straightened out first, then install the door with a "known to be good" set of door hinges.

 

[bigblock72]

I wouldn't cut the door yet, leave it alone and at least it'll be one measurement you can trust, cut it and you'll be guessing at the wing window angle too.

Take a breath and start over, pull the door off again and take measurements of the tub door opening.

Get this straightened out first, then install the door with a "known to be good" set of door hinges.

x2


Get the gap beween the door and windshield frame set by shimming the body mounts. If you don't have that gap close to where it needs to be before cutting you'll likely never get it right. The gap between the door and bedside is a secondary concern that can be taken care of when you fix the rust and the prior repair(s).

Go slow, take lots of pictures and post up your questions we're here for you.

 

[Z71paramedic]

x2


Get the gap beween the door and windshield frame set by shimming the body mounts. If you don't have that gap close to where it needs to be before cutting you'll likely never get it right. The gap between the door and bedside is a secondary concern that can be taken care of when you fix the rust and the prior repair(s).

Go slow, take lots of pictures and post up your questions we're here for you.

Thanks again (for up to now, and future) to everyone.

Anyways, the other problem I'm having is that the door just plain doesn't fit in the opening. It hits at the very top corner that would be trimmed off if it were already a blazer door, PLUS it's touching on both sides on the bottom to the rocker which is all sorts of out of alignment. the old door never closed right either. Can I at least get the outer rocker out of there now, or should I just add more shims for now? I just don't want to get a ton of shims under there if the outer rocker is the problem (or the biggest one) all along.

Correct me if I'm wrong but adding shims to the #2 location will "open" the door opening right???

 

[bp71k5]

Correct me if I'm wrong but adding shims to the #2 location will "open" the door opening right???

Shims will only open up a gap at top top of the door, not the bottom. If the door is crashing on the bottom, they won't help.

 

[vtblazer]

Correct me if I'm wrong but adding shims to the #2 location will "open" the door opening right???

Adding to #2 raises the 'b' pillar.

What are your opening measurements?
Is the firewall were it needs to be?

Removing the outer rocker at this point in the process is fine.

Here's a series of pics to help you figure out if the firewall is happy.
Notice how the string is hanging from the top of the windshield area and duplicate, get that right and putting yours where it needs to be will be a snap.
Also notice where the tape is on the floor, the factory joint should be the same for each tub.

 

[vtblazer]

More...

Match these numbers along with the ones above and you door will fit.

 

[bigblock72]

Thanks for posting those vt, right click...save..........some valuable information right there.

I've been thinking about taking pictures of measurements for a while and just haven't managed to do it yet. You saved me the time.

 

[Z71paramedic]

Thanks for posting those vt, right click...save..........some valuable information right there.

I've been thinking about taking pictures of measurements for a while and just haven't managed to do it yet. You saved me the time.

x2!!

I'll be checking those tomorrow. May be hacking the outer rockers out of there as well. The PO was a real hack I'm starting to realize. I'll take some pics of the welds on the rear floor that were never even sort of cleaned up too. Makes me cringe...

 

[Greg72]

The PO was a real hack I'm starting to realize. I'll take some pics of the welds on the rear floor that were never even sort of cleaned up too. Makes me cringe...

That's probably the most common expression made by new enthusiasts once the warm glow of the 1st Gen purchase wears off...

Keep reading, studying and posting question and pics. We'll be here to get you through the challenges.

 

[sponsoredbydad]

This is great therapy for all. I have been struggling with my passenger door for a couple of weeks now(remember I did not brace mine at all when I cut all that rust out and now it's pay back time for being STUPID). How many shims would one say is too many? and the #2 mount is that the one in the foot well. I've been confused about that several times do you count the one on the rad core support as #1 and count back.

Greg, Damn you got a good eye catching that body line.
VT, Thanks for those measurement pics I'm going to check that this week.

 

[Z71paramedic]

How many shims would one say is too many? and the #2 mount is that the one in the foot well. I've been confused about that several times do you count the one on the rad core support as #1 and count back.

Not sure about how many is too many, but I do know that the core support is not numbered, so #1 is the front floorboard, so #2 is the one directly behind the front seats with the long bolts.

 

[Z71paramedic]

Well, I made a little progress...

So I had a list 10 miles long of stuff to do this weekend on top of really wanting to get some quality time with the blazer. Yesterday I had the obligatory oil change on the wifes honda, some house stuff and actually got to work on the truck some. I prepped and painted my new engine crossmember from Kurt at DIY4x first because it was starting to show some surface rust...

I pulled the doors again and really paid closer attention this time to what was going on. I now noticed that the passenger side is fitting fine, and should be fine assuming the adjustments to the drivers side don't change it too much. The drivers side was touching on the bottom at both corners of the rocker, so that'll have to come out. The upper portion should be able to be moved a bit to clear. I also noticed that the door was hitting at the upper portion of where the striker would be. The hinges on that side have a bit o'play, so I guess I'll be ordering new hinges before doing too much else. I didn't really get to measure too much because I seem to have misplaced my plumb bomb, so I need to make a run to the hardware store...

All the while the Mrs wanted to play a role so she drilled all the spotwelds and got the dash out yesterday. Drool away!!!

I tore into the RR quarter to find out how much filler was there, and now kinda want to vomit at the "repair" that was made.

That's about it for now because it's been a torrential downpour all day today keeping me from doing anything on the truck and also putting the new front bumper on the camaro so I can sell it...

On a side note I am going to look at a 92 3/4 ton with the 6.5td and 5 speed this week. Does his asking price of $4500 sound decent?? The truck is pretty clean, and low miles for the year (115k I think). Let me know on that one...

The first two pics are of the awful welds on the rear floors made by the PO that I will be cleaning up here at some point. The last two are of the rear quarter. You can't really tell from the pic but there's like a 1/4" depression there. What a putz

 

[Z71paramedic]

Updates

So it's finally cooling down at work after Christmas and I have some energy now. I got my camaro fixed 90% and sold, bought a new-to-me truck and now can refocus on the blazer again. I've been getting little things done here and there, and have been accumulating more parts lately but finally got going again last weekend. (I know, no updates WHAT?!!!!) Anyways, the PO had installed the outer rockers without lining them up with the doors and body lines, which are wasted anyways. So I had to cut the outer rockers before I could get the new doors to even fit. I ended up cutting them out, and found that I needed to pull the drivers side of the firewall forward 3/4" to get my openings right. Voila! the doors fit great now *don't worry about the lower body line, there's bondo a-plenty there right now*. So I took the doors back off and braced the openings. That was last weekends big accomplishment.

Yesterday I cut out what was left of the rocker boxes. What I found inside was that the floors had been patched at the time the other stuff had been done by the PO but very poorly as everything else has been. The driver's side was worst. There is remnants of the original floor hanging down in there with the new patches welded over top of them. The cab supports are pretty much gone, as are the bottoms of both A-pillars. The inner splash shield (as I think I've heard it referred to as before) is wasted on both sides.

I went and met with the guy I bought the doors from yesterday also. He's got plenty of new parts that he has decided he doesn't want and will be selling me on the cheap, which is a super score for me because I get the parts cheaper than I would and don't have to pay shipping. For sure he's got a new inner/outer grille, inner and outer rockers, driver's side floor patches, cab supports, kick panels, bumper brackets, all the rubber and possibly a front bumper. I almost forgot, I also bought (another) motor last week. It's a vortec 350 from a 98 pickup that got rear ended. Has 90k on it, runs awesome and I picked it up for $200!!! Now I just need to get rid of the other two small blocks I've got adding to the clutter in my garage.

All I know is to this point, every piece I find that got touched by the PO makes me puke in my mouth a little...

I'm about to head back out there and possibly start removing passenger side floor and probably start removing some paint from the firewall area. More pics to come.

 

[NorCal69]

Ouch Man, that's going to be a good amount of work. It sucks that the PO didn't just do it correct the first time while he was in there.

If you need some moral support while cutting and grinding away, post it up. That can end up to be a long a lonely road.

The new door and gap looks real nice. It appears that I'm going to need to do some more work on my gap now that it's back down on the frame for a while.

 

[Z71paramedic]

Well, I wasn't really feeling it today for whatever reason. I did a little more cutting, but realized I don't want to cut too much out until I have the replacement parts in front of me. Moved a couple little things here and there and that was about it. Here's what I'm faced with in the floor areas...

 

[72blazerguy]

All I know is to this point, every piece I find that got touched by the PO makes me puke in my mouth a little...

that may be sig worthy

 

[Z71paramedic]

that may be sig worthy

Enjoy!